Some fascinating things for this age group are simple categorizing or observation games….

“I spy” ex: I spy something red… then give her lots of chances to guess what you see, give lots of hints if she gets frustrated.

Make up stories together- let her add the details and use her imagination

Sing some songs that are her favorites, but changes some words and watch her reaction, she’ll soon be making her own personal songs.

Sunday is the first day of fall- try standing an egg on end (it only works on the 1st day of spring and fall.

This is a great time of year for being outside- give her a paintbrush and a tub of water and let her “paint” your lawn furniture, the sidewalk etc.

Collect lots of leaves and have her sort them by size shape and color! My daughter loves this.

Anything that involves you, whether washing the dishes or reading a book will capture her interest more than if you give her something to play all by herself.

Have fun!

The Letter Factory

The Word Factory

The Storybook Factory

The Numbers Factory

They are fun and she’ll get an early start on her phonics and numbers.

Outside – put a piece of tape around her wrist, sticky side out and let her stick leaves to it. Later, cut it off, cover the sticky part with another piece of tape and use it as a book mark.

Go to kidszone.com

http://www.Starfall.com

This site is great for young children. There are plenty of activities that keep my six year old and my two year old interested. Games vary from matching, to concentration-type games (we unexpectedly found out that my 2 year old little girl is a master at this. I need to research what that means) to activities that test and improve math, reading and shape and color recognition. There is no cost for the site, but there are ads.

http://www.PlayhouseDisney.com

All of Playhouse Disney’s sites focus on the characters on their hit television shows that play to preschoolers across the nation. At first glance, this looks more like a play site and a time waster, but we noticed that some of the better games are teaching something. One of my favorites is Manners with Max. Max will go through different scenarios and teach your child how to display the proper manners in each situation (answering the phone, eating at the table, etc.) There are also a lot of activities that allow your child to color and animate pictures on the screen or print out coloring pages to color on their own. Make sure you restrict access to the printer on this one, because my kids can go through a lot of ink and paper if I’m not paying attention.

http://www.NickJr.com

If your little one enjoys Dora the Explorer or her cousin Diego, this is the site for him/her. Similar to the Playhouse Disney site, there are many learning, reading and coloring activities all surround the Nick Jr. universe.

http://www.CartoonNetwork.com

Not much learning going on here. You may want to restrict this site. The games can be fun, be they can also be gross and time-wasters. Save this one for the pre-teen or teenage years.

http://www.pfgoldfish.com

Sometimes you can find the best sites in the strangest places. The Pepperidge Farm site was built to promote their tasty Goldfish snacks, but in the process, they created some pretty good games for kids. Definitely worth a look if your kids like Goldfish.

http://www.Edutopia.org

Edutopia is an interesting site that is sponsored by George Lucas and is based on his Educational Foundation. Most of the site is geared to helping school teachers use technology in the classroom, but as a parent, this is a great resource. Just pick a topic that your child is interested in learning or needs help in and you will be given a wide range of resources and links to external sites. Learning about the solar system, for instance leads to to some interesting resources on the NASA site. If your teacher needs a little push to use the computer in the classroom, have him/her sign up for a free subscription to the Edutopia magazine.

Sometimes its not always about learning.

Believe it or not, even if the site isn’t geared towards learning, reading is almost always involved, so some sites are just fun to use and will increase your child’s comfort lever with technology. They may pitch their product to your child, but they see it on tv anyway. Some fine examples are: http://www.PopTarts.com , http://www.CapnCrunch.com , http://www.FisherPrice.com and http://www.Lego.com

I have a blog at http://www.preschoolsoftware.blogspot.co… where I talk more about software and computer learning for preschoolers.

http://www.starfall.com

http://www.dltk-kids.com/

http://www.preksmarties.com/

http://www.dltk-kids.com/

http://www.childcareland.com

http://www.preschoolprintables.com/

Enjoy!

http://www.starfall.com/